


a time to remember

by writerdragonfly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Inspired by Book/Movie, M/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 21:18:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4034932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writerdragonfly/pseuds/writerdragonfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is in third period when he meets the new kid. He thinks the kid might be hot if he wore clothes that actually fit. </p><p>Not that Derek cares, really. He feels on top of the world. He’d gotten hot and heavy with Paige last night and she still kissed him goodnight afterward.</p><p>Derek doesn’t remember much about third period. Just the kid, mostly. His name was Krzesimir, seriously.</p><p>-x-</p><p>Loosely inspired by A Walk to Remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a time to remember

**Author's Note:**

> This is terrible, please forgive me. <3

Derek is in third period when he meets the new kid. He's tall–not enormously so, but he’s about an inch taller than Derek. Derek thinks the kid might actually be hot if he wore clothes that actually fit. His brown hair is hair is a little rumpled and his face a little pale and sleep worn, neither of which helps. 

Not that he cares, really. He feels on top of the world. He’d gotten to third base with Paige last night and she still kissed him goodnight afterward.

Derek doesn’t remember much about third period. Just the kid, mostly. His name was _Krzesimir_ , seriously.

-x-

“Please, call me anything but that,” Derek overhears at lunch. Rebecca Martin is smirking at the kid, her dark red painted lips twisted into a feral smirk.

“Okay, loser. I’ll hold you to it.”

The kid’s face falls and he sighs as Martin and her posse of future purse dog owning trophy wives walk away.

“Don’t let it get to you. Martin’s a shark. She graduates this year, so you’ll have a few years without her anyway.”

“A few years–dude, I’m a senior! Already eighteen and everything.”

“Oh. Well, normally seniors don’t look–”

“Fuck off,” Krzesimir says.

And not for the first time, Derek wonders who the hell the kid is.

-x-

Derek only has one class with Krzesimir. Third period drama. Most of his classmates spend the hour every day making subtle and not-so-subtle fun of the kid’s name. Derek does not.

He thinks of names, of course. He’s not perfect. But he doesn’t say them.

He gets the impression that this isn’t the only class he gets picked on in.

-x-

“Oh my god, call me Kress! I realize I’m a special snowflake who is too awesome for all of you, but that doesn’t mean I have to put up with an entire school bullying me because my name is freaking Polish!”

-x-

“Derek, I think we’ll have you and Krz– _Kress_ –as our leads for the next piece,” the teacher tells them one afternoon. Derek isn’t exactly happy about it. He’s taking drama for the credit not for the acting.

But he doesn’t argue. Kress actually seems kind of cool, not that Derek would ever admit that to anyone. Ever.

“So, dude. Do you want to practice our lines together? Or are you going to pretend I don’t exist except when it’s convenient to make fun of me like everyone else in this hellhole?”

“It’s kind of hard to pretend you don’t exist. You’re very loud.”

“You’re hilarious.”

“I know.”

“Look, if you don’t want to–”

“I’ll stop by after practice tonight. What’s your address?”

The kid looks a little weary of that–Derek doesn’t blame him.

“I’ve got a houseful of sisters. Not exactly prime line-reading space.”

-x-

Kress lives in a cheap apartment on the bad side of town. He doesn’t have furniture, just an air mattress to sleep on. He looks embarrassed, but Derek doesn’t comment.

“You live on your own?”

“Yeah. My mom died a few years ago and my dad… My dad… Anyway, I tutor middle schoolers at the rec center for rent. It’s not too bad. The apartment sucks but I’m not going to be here much longer.”

“Where are you going to college?”

“Oh, I’m not. I just… Doesn’t matter. You’re a sophomore, right?”

“Yeah. I’m sixteen.”

“The second semester of my sophomore year was terrifyingly bad. I wish… I hope yours isn’t… For what it matters.”

“You’re kind of strange, you know.”

“I know,” Kress replies with a laugh.

-x-

A week later, Kress interrupts their practice with a non-sequitur.

“I have one rule, okay? Don’t fall in love with me.”

Derek has no intention of doing that. He has a _girlfriend_ and he says as much.

Kress nods, but there’s a weird look on his face.

-x-

A few days later, Paige is dead.

-x-

Derek knows that he and Kress aren’t exactly friends. They meet almost everyday after practice and they don’t acknowledge each other in public, especially not at school. He feels like an asshole for ignoring him but he doesn’t change anything about it.

But the day the news breaks about Paige, Derek sneaks into Kress’ apartment just to be around the scent of someone who wasn’t family.

And Kress is there. Kress didn’t go to school.

Derek doesn’t get why.

“Dude, stay as long as you need. Let me know what I can do. I know… I know that nothing I can say is going to make things better. But you’re not alone, okay?”

-x-

“I… Something happened. I did something stupid, for all the right reasons. But someone really important to me died because of that. So I get it.”

-x-

Kress becomes his lifeline over the weeks following. Even after their midterm class performance, they spend time together.

The more time they spend together, the more Derek gets to know him.

The more Derek gets to know him, the more secrets he realizes Kress is hiding.

It doesn’t stop Derek from spending time with him, doesn’t stop Derek from defending him in the middle of the lunch room when yet another vitriolic comment spews from their classmates’ mouths. Derek tanks his social standing just to defend him because at the end of the day, Kress understands him better than anyone.

Besides, Kress is entitled to secrets. Derek has his own fanged ones he’s keeping from him.

-x-

Kress is vehemently against Derek dating the pretty substitute from his fifth period class. He tells Derek frequently that it’s a bad idea, that it won’t end well. But he’s mute on the reasons why.

Derek knows this because of the way Kress lies when he tells him all the valid reasons why he shouldn’t.

Derek doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get why Kress would lie about it.

But he can’t tell Kress that because of his own stupid secrets.

-x-

The only reason he doesn’t tell Kress about werewolves is what happened to Paige.

-x-

Kress gives him these weird looks sometimes. He looks almost sad, sometimes wistful.

And sometimes Derek wonders if Kress has a crush on him, if he’s in love with him.  

If that’s why he hates Kate so much.

-x-

The terrible thing about dating someone in secret (Kress doesn’t count, he doesn’t have anyone to tell), is that he can’t go out in public with her.

So the night of the dance, he convinces Kress to join him and Laura for a night of fun.

The entire day Kress is quiet. Even Laura picks up on it during the ride over to the school.

So when they’re dancing and Derek hears Kress’ heart rate skyrocket twelve minutes after seven, both him and Laura are at his side in moments.

“You need to go home. You need to go home now. Something. It’s. I wanted to. You don’t have any time, you have to go!” Kress yells at them, pushing them towards the gym door.

“What the fuck, Kress?”

“Can’t you feel it, Derek?! She’s poison and you showed her… And they’re in trouble! You have to go!”

Nothing Kress says makes any sense, but he’s terrified and shaking.

“Laura, get the car–”

“No! Derek, you have to drive.”

“What? No, Laura–”

“Derek, _please_!”

Derek nods and takes the keys from Laura. She manages to get Kress outside just as he pulls up with the car, and Kress looks even worse than he had inside.

He doesn’t speak the entire ride to the house. They’re just making the turn off the main road when Laura _loses it_.

She howls and shifts and Kress doesn’t fucking move a muscle, just sits there in the backseat with this lost look in his eyes, his face wet from fucking crying.

“Derek!” Laura cries when Derek slams on the brakes and he looks at her and wants to die.

Her eyes are ruby red and shining.

“No. No, no, no.” Derek repeats, slamming on the gas and nearly spinning off the road as he hurried back to the house.

And everything’s on fire.

Derek parks the car behind a fire truck and stumbles out with Laura and before they can even function, Kress is bolting it inside the house before the firefighters can even get there.

It’s too late and no one will let them go inside.

But Kress never comes back out.

No one does, of the people Derek cares about. A firefighter saves Peter, but his mind gets left behind.

-x-

Peter’s burns don’t heal. Laura spends two weeks without getting out of bed, and Derek’s the one left handling the paperwork.

No one comes for Kress. Not that there’s a body left. Peter was lucky, having been in the fucking shower when the fire started. Everyone else is ash.

The moment they can, Derek piles Laura into their mom’s Camaro and they head off to somewhere that’s not Beacon Hills.

-x-

Laura takes over when they’re in Nebraska. She stops crying constantly and lets Derek finally break down.

He’s angry and sad and upset. Laura lost their pack too, but Derek lost his best friend on top of that.

He found a letter in the glove compartment that night. It was dated the night of the fire and it was written to him. It didn’t say much. Just two sentences.

“I told you not to fall in love with you. I should have warned myself.”

-x-

Derek keeps it folded up in his wallet.

He doesn’t keep his phone. There’s a voice mail he doesn’t see for three days after the fire from Kate.

-x-

It occurs to him a few years later that he doesn’t remember what Kress’ last name was. If he ever did.

-x-

He doesn’t return to Beacon Hills by choice. He was something resembling happy in New York and then Laura… And he had to come back.

He didn’t expect to be swept up in everything that happened after Laura died. He didn’t expect to become an Alpha or lose half his new pack or for _Cora_ to suddenly be alive.

And he didn’t expect Stiles.

He didn’t expect this kid who looked so much like Kress, who acted so much like Kress, to butt his way into Derek’s life until Derek couldn’t picture his life without him.

He means to tell Stiles this, when he’s back from taking Cora to her new pack in South America. He means to tell Stiles about his own second semester of sophomore year and about Kress and how he feels about Stiles.

But he comes back and Stiles isn’t there. There’s something using his body and destroying everything that Stiles has left.

And when it’s all over, Kate happens.

And Derek feels like he’s lost his chance at someone once again.

-x-

The less he thinks about being sixteen again the better.

He’s pretty sure he called Stiles Kress once.

That was the easiest part of everything, he thinks.

-x-

Of course, once he’s an adult he wants to tell Stiles even more than he had before.

It’s just… Stiles has Malia now.

So he doesn’t.

-x-

Braeden is comfortable, easy. He could fall in love with her, and they know it.

But a part of Derek can’t make himself give up on Stiles.

Not yet.

-x-

He’s dying. Derek is dying and Stiles doesn’t know.

Derek is dying and Stiles doesn’t know and Derek feels like his life is coming full circle.

Kress stood back once and let Derek make a mistake with a girl even though he loved Derek and then he died.

And now Derek is doing that to Stiles.

But he can’t tell Stiles now.

-x-

He doesn’t expect to suddenly be okay. Doesn’t expect to suddenly shift into a wolf and survive.

-x-

Braeden leaves but it’s okay. Stiles is alive and Derek is alive and it’s stupid, but Derek can wait.

If he wasn’t ready to admit things when he was dying, he doesn’t think he’s ready now.

-x-

It makes him feel itchy, almost, thinking about how the older Stiles gets the more like Kress he looks.

-x-

Things change that summer. Stiles is eighteen, basking in the relatively supernatural free school break and ignoring his impending senior year with his usual grace.

Malia is gone, though Derek can admit to not paying attention to where she went or why. He knows she isn’t coming back and Stiles seems to be okay with that.

They’re spending more time together, enough that the sheriff sends him the occasional knowing look and accompanying smirk. But whatever they are doesn’t have any definition other than friends, and Derek still hesitates to be the one to change that.

He’s afraid that Stiles won’t feel that way about him, won’t take that risk.

So he keeps it to himself, until one day is too late again.

-x-

The witch comes to town on a Tuesday. She’s young–hardly sixteen–but she’s powerful.

She’s also terrified, and that’s how it happens.

One minute the pack is playing shifted ultimate frisbee in the preserve and the next everyone is ducking for cover.

Except for Stiles.

Stupidly brave and self-sacrificing Stiles.

Stiles is up on his feet and tackles Derek into the ground to avoid the bright blue light.

But though he’s pushed Derek out of the way, he isn’t fast enough to get out of the way himself.

-x-

 

The witch tries her best to find him. Between Deaton and Argent, they manage to narrow down the type of spell to something that manipulates time and space. But beyond that they know nothing.

Unless Stiles calls, they can do nothing.

-x-

 

Stiles is gone for months.

He misses the first few months of his senior year. Derek walks through the preserve twice a day, stays in contact with Scott and the Sheriff.

How Derek feels about Stiles somehow becomes the worst kept secret in the pack.

-x-

Four months after he disappeared, the pack gathers in the preserve. All of them, even Cora who wasn’t in the pack when Stiles went missing. The witch joins them, though no one is sure how and why she knew to come.

They don’t play or make jokes. It’s hard being there without him, feeling the loss of him.

The witch gets up, suddenly alert and aware. She takes off without bothering to slip her sandals back on, heading towards where the Hale House once stood.

A painful hope and vague uneasiness battles in the pit of his stomach.

They arrive just after she does, the air filled with the scent of heavy smoke and ozone, though everything is clear and clean.

There’s a figure standing on the edge of the property. He’s wearing a singed dress shirt and black slacks, and he looks exactly like Krzesimir seven and a half years before.

“Is that Kress?” Cora’s voice hitches, and then Scott and the sheriff are running past them to pull Kress into a tight hug.

Because Krzesimir is Stiles and Stiles is Krzesimir and everything makes a terrifying amount of sense now.

Stiles tried to save them, but Stiles could never say why. Stiles had secrets and…

_Stiles was in love with him._

“Kress is Stiles? _Stiles saved me_?”

Derek stares at Cora then, the way her eyes are bright with unshed tears. Remembers the night of the fire, the way Kress–Stiles–had run into the house without thinking, all adrenaline and panic.

He’d gone in to save Cora, knowing that Cora got out somehow.

He’d done it for him, and he must’ve known he might not make it out alive.

Derek doesn’t know how much time has passed before Stiles is in front of him.

“Derek.”

Stiles’ voice cracks.

“Krzesimir Stilinski.” Derek says with a soft smile.

“Fuck, I’m…”

Derek kisses him, in front of all their friends and what’s left of Derek’s family and Stiles tastes like smoke and magic and _Stiles_.

And Stiles kisses him back, until the sheriff coughs pointedly and the world comes back to life around them.

“I broke your one rule, Kress. You were just Stiles when I did it.”

“You… _really?_ ”

“Really.”


End file.
